hallway art

After 18+ months of living here, we have finally hung some artwork. And we hung not 1, not 2, not 5 but 8 pieces of art. Late in 2012 I found a beautiful Rifle Paper Co calendar with gorgeous images of foreign cities. L and I have travelled fairly widely through Europe and a little beyond, and straight away I realised I had a pretty amazing wedding present with the framed prints that helped to tell our story. And then Young House Love went and copied me...

Anyway, on our wedding day I gave L my surprise gift and the watch we had chosen. He loved them luckily. I hadn't framed them yet-I didn't make it to Ikea before the wedding, but I convinced L to drop in on our way back from Yamba, where we picked up some Ribba frames (YHL did give me that tip!).

A quick before for you. Nothing too exciting to see. 

We have been to 7 of the cities together, L has been to 8, so those were the ones we used. After a bit of a play around we fit all 8 and I love them! We used Command Velcro strips on the rec of a friend, and they are amazing! I used 4 on each, it probably didn't need 4, but I wasn't sure and didn't want them falling down. They are very secure. All the wall sections were a bit different in widths, so I had to do a bit of tongue poking out, head on side measuring and sketching, but I'm so happy with how they turned out.

I walk out of our bedroom and see London and Paris multiple times a day.

I walk from the lounge room to our front door and see Istanbul and Rome.

I leave the study and see Cairo and Amsterdam.

When I walk down the hallway I see New York. L has been, I have not, and it is high up on my travel wish list (it is a long list, with new and repeated visits!) It's like it's my vision board (although I'm hopeful it being at the end of a long hallway isn't too symbolic...).

We also put Sydney up, it's closest to the front door, and is behind the door when it is open. It's more there for balance I guess. It gives us an excuse to go to Rio, Tokyo,  Bankok or Moscow so we can swap it out.

These were some of our favourite cities, we lived in London, I visited Paris and Rome twice (with L once), Istanbul is an incredible city, (and Turkey is one of our favourite countries), Amsterdam is so fun and crazy and beautiful, Cairo is so full of history-the pyramids blow my mind, and we have so many amazing memories linked to these cities. Plus the artwork is gorgeous.

what's on for this year?

I wrote about how our list went last year a few days ago, so thought I would fill you in on what we have in the works for this year.

We spent a bit of time on New Years Eve reflecting, and planning our year, and we have dubbed it "The Year of Outside". This year is shaping up to be a bit less hectic than last year with no wedding, but we will be going on our  honeymoon to Sri Lanka for 3-4 weeks. Again, things will probably change as we go along-priorities change, things pop up that need doing, other things happen that mean some stuff isn't viable at the moment for whatever reason. Plus everything always takes more time and more money than you expect! This is a pretty flexible list, and writing it down looks quite optimistic...

-Build raised vegie beds in the side garden

-Built a small retaining wall under the front of the house, (and dig out a whole heap of dirt!) to put in at least 1 water tank for our gardens

-Build another 'feature fence' on the other side of the house near the garage

-Fence the northern side of the block (currently unfenced)

-Built some retaining walls in the back yard

-Turf the back yard

-Paint the rest of the railings

-Refinish the other french doors

-Fix up some of the windows (peeling paint and putty needing replacing)

-Look at painting the exterior

I'd also like to paint the purple lounge and dining rooms, but this may or may not happen this year.

I also hope to spend some more time doing some DIYs, including some more sewing, and hang some more art on the walls. A bit less renovating, and a bit more decorating!

We had planned to renovate the laundry this year, but we have decided to put it off. We can live with the laundry we have for the time being, even though it isn't ideal, but we want to get outside sorted, plants and trees growing, and the outside looking good. We will save the plans for another time.

Have you got a bit of a plan for what you would like to achieve in the year ahead? I'd love to hear about it!

a new year, and looking back

Sorry for the blog silence. Things were a bit crazy here for awhile, with work being full on, family health issues, commitments and a general need to retreat and rest and recover. Last year was insane-both of us work massive hours, we planned a wedding, we lived and socialised, we painted and built and decorated and I think we were both worn out. House improvements and blogging very much took a back seat for awhile, and even when we started up again it seemed as though it was just long, dirty, boring projects, like digging out retaining walls!. I almost considered shutting it down. Things seem ok at the moment, so I'm back and I missed you!

We've started up on some improvements again, inside and outside, and I can't wait to show you!

I'll be a little more gentle with myself, and not push myself to blog or force myself to do things to put on the blog. Sometimes when pressure makes me dig my heels in-even when it's my own pressure!

Anyway, this was our list from the start of last year. We got through most of it, but life happens, priorities change, and things pop up. 
-Blinds for 2 upstairs bedrooms-Nope, still blankets in the blue room and none in ours. I love waking up naturally to the sun, and they aren't clear glass so privacy isn't an issue. 
-Blinds for sunroom-Nope. 
-Refinish french doors-We did the front one, and the others are on the cards soon. 
-Paint lounge room and dining room (and maybe kitchen?), including trims and ceiling
-Nope, but we did paint all of downstairs, so we will count that as done :) 
-Paint the railings on the veranda white - Yes, the front verandah anyway!
-Re-cover the outdoor furniture-nope
-Sand the decks, and oil-another tick!
-Kill the awful plants in the side garden, and do something with it - we are well on the way
-Varnish the outdoor chairs-nope

Things we did that weren't on the list:
-painted the built-in doors in the bedrooms
-built a fence for the side garden and a gate
-built a pot veggie patch
-fixed the leak in the front verandah, and repaired the hole
-fixed the leak in the back verandah (but didn't repair the hole)
-added more solar panels
-had a wedding
-made some wedding DIYs-a guestbook, bunting, favours
-built some garage storage
-hosted Christmas